Sometimes great ideas just aren’t meant to be: Times change, conditions change, and suddenly it’s time to move on.

And sometimes, the very realization that this is the case is the story of the year.

While a great deal happened at city hall over the past 12 months, I humbly suggest the city hall story of the year (as opposed to the overall Story of the Year, for which I ask your patience), is city council’s change of course on the twin-pad arena.

It’s a significant reversal not only because it brings to an end a long process many expected would lead to a west-end sports complex, but also because of what it says about the conditions on the ground.

Herculean provincial deficits, a provincial government focused (in theory if not always in practice) on cost-cutting, and arena woes just east of our city were enough to convince council, rather quickly, to adjust its expectations.

In late October, council unanimously backed a motion to “consider abandoning the Twin Pad Arena capital project due to project costs, anticipated funding sources and changing market conditions.”

The motion also directs staff to “review the Brockville Arena Expansion Feasibility Study” and “report back on other feasibility options given project costs, funding and market demand.”

Mayor Jason Baker, who as a councillor fought the skeptics to keep the twin-pad idea on city hall’s priority list, showed remarkable philosophical equilibrium at the sight of it collapsing like that Phillips Cables smokestack, punctuating the decision by saying: “I look forward to the next chapter of that discussion.”

The decision marked the end of a years-long process that began with plans to expand the Memorial Centre, then shifted to a more ambitious project to build a new sports facility at the former Phillips Cables site, in conjunction with the Upper Canada District School Board’s planned new school.

(The latter project is expected to continue on its own without the city’s involvement.)

In more recent years, market pressures made the twin-pad project more of a challenge, while the availability of crucial provincial funding was cast in doubt.

A great many stickers accumulated around the need to “re-evaluate” the “business case” for a twin-pad arena.

Austerity, or the threat of it, from Queen’s Park was not the only factor at play.

The expected demand for the extra ice pad was suddenly in question, especially after Hockey Canada began requiring younger levels of minor hockey to use half ice for games.

City staff noticed that, when the Leo Boivin Community Centre was forced to shut down its rink, the anticipated increase in bookings in Brockville didn’t materialize.

And then there’s the situation surrounding the Leo itself.

When Brockville fist set out to put a twin-pad at the old Phillips site, no one anticipated it would end up having to compete for infrastructure dollars with a neighbouring community for whom losing “the Leo” is a form of identity crisis.

That, unfortunately, is still likely to happen, because sooner or later the moribund Centennial Youth Arena is going to breathe its last as a sports facility and metamorphose, perhaps, into a rain shelter for the dog park.

The city is going to need another ice surface, but with a scaled-down project in Brockville and a little good fortune there may eventually be room for both our needs and Prescott’s.

We should learn more early in 2020 about what Brockville’s new “Option A” for a sports facility might turn out to be.

We will likely have to wait a little longer before learning if anything else, for instance a new housing subdivision, will now rise from the ashes of the twin-pad project and grow alongside the coming public school at the Phillips site.

That subdivision has been talked about since the most recent recession of a dozen years ago, and with whispers of an economic downturn around the corner in 2020, the former Phillips site is likely to be a school and little else for the foreseeable future.

For now, let us pause to appreciate the value of a city council that, when faced with stark facts on the ground, was willing unanimously to change course, despite the inevitable disappointment for many.

And yes, let’s turn the page and start a new chapter.

City hall reporter Ronald Zajac can be reached at Rzajac@postmedia. com